Poor, or Just Feeling Poor? On Using Subjective Data in Measuring Poverty

Ravallion, Martin

关键词: ABSOLUTE POVERTY;    ABSOLUTE POVERTY LINE;    ACCESS TO SERVICES;    AGGREGATE POVERTY;    CHILD MORTALITY;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-5968
RP-ID  :  WPS5968

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

The challenges faced in calibratingpoverty and welfare measures to objective data have longbeen recognized. Until recently, most economists haveresisted a seemingly obvious solution, namely to ask peoplethemselves: "Do you feel poor?" The paper studiesthe case for and against this approach. It is argued that,while one would not want to use self-assessments as welfaremetrics in their own right, there is scope for using suchdata to help calibrate multidimensional measures. Indeed,the idea of a "social subjective poverty line"(below which people tend to think they are poor, but abovewhich they do not) is arguably the most conceptuallyappealing way of defining poverty. However, the paper pointsto a number of concerns that have received insufficientattention, including the choice of covariates, survey designissues, measurement errors, frame-of-reference effects, andlatent heterogeneity in personality traits and personaltradeoffs. Directions for future research are identified.